I was watching the news this evening and they were talking about the threatened Coup in Fiji (which is also a concept that seems a bit odd to me. The notion of taking over the country by surprise and seizing power seems to kind of lack something if everyone knows it’s coming weeks ahead of time).
They were talking about the talks run in NZ today to try and avert the crisis, and at the end they showed Winston Peters (subtitled as “New Zealand Foreign Minister”, which is another thing I still haven’t gotten used to) talking about the diplomatic solution that was being worked on. It all seemed incongruous.
Maybe it’s just me but I have a had time associating Winston Peters with the word “Diplomatic”. “Winebox” maybe. “Barfight” certainly, but the idea of Winston as Statesman still seems just a little too much of a stretch for me.
Still, I suppose if he’s getting results I guess we can’t complain. He’s certainly appears to be doing a damn sight more than his Australian counterpart who’s helpful input to date seems to have consisted of alternating between “Australians, don’t go to Fiji” and “Fijians, tut tut tut” (accompanied by the appropriate stern parental finger waggling gestures).